The aim of this phenomenologically informed study was to explore the experience of being hospitalised with an AIDS-defining illness. Eight men recently hospitalised with an AIDS-defining illness were asked at interview to describe the meaning of AIDS for them and the nursing interventions they experienced as helpful and unhelpful while they were in hospital. The findings pertaining to participants' experiences of nursing interventions are highlighted in this paper. Overall, the interventions experienced as helpful were those which the participants interpreted as being motivated by care. Conversely, the interventions described as unhelpful were those that suggested to the participants a lack of care on the part of nurses. The main implications of patients' experiences for nursing practice are discussed.